there’s beauty: Gaza Ramadan day 11

Looking for beauty when surrounded by injustices.

Right up until maghreb, when the sun sets and the call to prayer rings out and the fasting masses can begin iftaar, Abu Adham related the events of yesterday’s Israeli navy shooting and shelling of his boat, destroying it.

This is the third major Israeli harassment (to put it too lightly), and by far the worst, which Abu Adham’s boat has endured in the last year only. Prior incidents include: IOF shooting with live ammunition, IOF water-cannon dousings (high pressured water, sometimes laced with a nauseous toxic spray, aimed at key structural parts of the boat and at windows, which can knock fishermen off their feet and shatter cabin windows), IOF confiscation of Abu Adham’s boat and abduction of his crew (including son).

And that’s only speaking of his own boat. The majority of Gaza’s fishermen have faces similar acts of Israeli terrorism on Palestinian waters.

But this one broke Abu Adham. Or at least his boat.

We spent until sunset, listening to his testimony, to him speak of his family –13 children, all his family crammed into a 400m square apartment and now without income.

We photographed and took videos of the numerous, uncountable bullet holes from this latest Israeli navy attack (previous attacks’ bullet holes had been patched), of the completely burned deck, destroyed cabin, of the hole left by the mortar the IOF navy fired at the boat, after subjecting the fishermen to over 15 minutes of heavy gunfire.

International Journalism Award From Mexican Press Club March 2017

about me

Eva Bartlett is an independent writer and rights activist with extensive experience in Syria and in the Gaza Strip, where she lived a cumulative three years (from late 2008 to early 2013). She documented the 2008/9 and 2012 Israeli war crimes and attacks on Gaza while riding in ambulances and reporting from hospitals.
Since April 2014, she has visited Syria 7 times, including two months in summer 2016 and one month in Oct/Nov 2016 and her latest visit in June 2017 (to Aleppo, Homs, al-Waer, Madaya, al-Tall, Damascus).
Her early visits included interviewing residents of the Old City of Homs, which had just been secured from militants, and visiting historic Maaloula after the Aramaic village had been liberated of militants. In December 2015, Eva returned to old Homs to find life returning, small shops opened, some of the damaged historic churches holding worship anew, and citizens preparing to celebrate Christmas once again.
On her 5th visit in June-August 2016, she went twice to Aleppo, also visiting Palmyra, Masyaf, Jableh, Tartous, and Barzeh district of Damascus, as well as returning again to Maaloula and Latakia.
On her sixth visit to Syria, in October and November, she visited Aleppo twice more, as well as areas around Damascus. The testimonies Eva gathered in Aleppo starkly contrasted narratives corporate media had been asserting.
Many of her published Syria writings, videos, photos can be found at this link:
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/syria/